Category: Music

It’s very easy for an obsessive organizer type to get lost in iTunes. All those data fields, some of which are rarely filled in—take “composer,” for instance—mean there’s always something to look at in a spare minute and to try to populate. So I was delighted to find possibly the last resource I’ll ever need for composers of popular standards (as performed by jazz singers and instrumental artists): Todd’s Lyrics and Links. In addition to lyrics, he also lists composer, lyricist, arranger (where appropriate), and the whole shebang is organized by performer. I recognize a work of obsession when I see it. My hat’s off, Todd, and thanks.

Polar opposites this week. First, the long-awaited final (and I must enclose a question mark after that word, given the long tradition of mining the back catalog of dead celebrities until not even their teeth are left in the grave) album from Elliott Smith, From a Basement on the Hill. With two songs from the album having been released as a 45 prior to Elliott’s passing and subsequently included on multiple compilations, I’ve been eager to hear the rest of the work for a long time and am listening right now, so further reactions will have to wait…

Second, the first-ever mash-up to receive a major-label release hit iTunes (and, one supposes, physical record stores) today: the DJ Reset mash “Frontin’ on Debra,” which combines elements of Beck’s “Debra” with the Pharrell Williams/Jay-Z tune “Frontin’,” plus original elements added by DJ Reset. Beatmixed had the story back in September, so check it out for more detail. All I can say is, like the best tracks from the Gray Album, this mash is a goofy pleasure.

Check out my latest review at BlogCritics, of the forthcoming (releasing tomorrow) Dexter Gordon box set from Prestige. All I can add to what I wrote there is: reviewing an 11-disc boxed set ain’t the joy you might think. I can now only think in jazz licks.

Last night I saw PJ Harvey at Avalon. And when I say “saw,” I mean experienced, in the form of a gorgeous gut-punch. The night started less promisingly, with a quick set from Moris Tepper, which I mostly missed but which made me think fondly of a time, before artists like Tepper, when tuning one’s voice to the same key as one’s guitar was still important. (His songs sounded good, but the effects on his mic spread his vocal pitch over a minor 3rd around whatever note he was actually singing.)

Then PJ took the stage, and the whole thing kicked up a notch. Opening with “Who the Fuck” and “The Letter” from her most recent album, she dropped in and rocked hard on “Dress,” which I have been waiting about twelve years to hear live and which lived up to all my inflated expectations. Other songs on the list (not in order) included “Me Jane” (!) “Meet Ze Monsta,” “Down By The Water,” “A Perfect Day Elise,” “Gun,” “The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore,” “Good Fortune,” “Shame,” “You Come Through,“ Surprises included “Janet Vs. Johnny,” “Taut” (from the collaboration with John Parish), “Harder” (the B-side), and “Cmon Billy” (played solo by PJ, with only a guitar bigger than she was to accompany that big big voice).

The overall sound, with a drummer, one guitarist cum drummer, and one really heavy bassist backing PJ, was bass heavy and menacing, and really tight. By total contrast, the chorus led by two guys behind me of “Happy Birthday” that greeted PJ when she returned for the encore was ragged but moving—she actually waved a birthday hat above her head and smiled for the crowd before jumping into the first encore song.

Other reports from the concert on the PJ Harvey bulletin board.

I can’t believe I waited this long to buy a Ramones recording (yes, Johnny’s death prompted me. I’m a ghoul, I can’t help it), but Ramones Mania was worth it—30 tracks of pure rock goodness, with the longest track the caustic Reagan kiss-off “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg” at a sprawling 3:53 and 25 other tracks that are less than three minutes in length. It’s almost available on the iTunes Music Store, but they haven’t gotten around to adding “Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment” (track 3), which actually exists in the store but hasn’t been linked to the album yet. I recommend waiting until they complete the album lineup so you pay $10 instead of $28.71.

The new U2 single, “Vertigo,” is available in the iTunes Music Store. This isn’t so much of a non sequitur as you might think—there’s a strong punk influence on the track, from the opening four-count in Spanish to the first guitar and bass riff. After that it goes some different places, including some very nice angular guitar work in the bridge, which for all the world sounds like the Edge quoting himself circa October. It sounds like the boys are having fun, which is something of a relief after the self-consciously earnest All That You Can’t Leave Behind.

I’m currently listening, while I try to get some work done, to the amazing Low outtakes and rarities box set, A Lifetime of Temporary Relief. The polar opposite, in size, mood, and tracklength, of the Ramones recording, the set chronicles ten years of mournful beauty from the amazingly consistent and downbeat trio from Duluth. Too many highlights to mention, but I will say that they do more justice than I would have thought possible to the George Harrison-penned Beatles classic “Long Long Long.”

A flood of “just addeds” in the iTunes Music Store this week that … well, I could describe them, but better to let Cornershop do it!

Cornershop
When I Was Born for the Seventh Time
Warner Bros., 1997

There’s dancing
Behind movie scenes
Behind the movie scenes
Sadi Rani
She’s the one that keeps the dream alive
from the morning
past the evening
to the end of the light

Brimful of Asha on the 45
Well it’s a brimful of Asha on the 45

And dancing
Behind movie scenes
Behind those movie scenes
Asha Bhosle
She’s the one that keeps the dream alive
from the morning
past the evening
to the end of the light

Brimful of Asha on the 45
Well it’s a brimful of Asha on the 45

And singing
illuminate the main streets
And the cinema aisles
We don’t care bout no
Gov’t warnings,
’bout their promotion of a simple life
And the dams they’re building

Brimful of Asha on the 45
Well it’s a brimful of Asha on the 45

Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow
Everybody needs a bosom
Mine’s on the 45

Mohamed Rufhi-45
Lata Mangeshkar-45
Solid state radio-45
Fer-guh-son mono-45
Bonn publeek-45
Jacques Dutronc and the Bolan Boogie, the Heavy
Hitters and the Chichi music
All India Radio-45
Two in ones-45
Argo Records-45
Trojan Records-45
Brimful of Asha on the 45
77,000-piece
Orchestra set
Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow
Mine’s on the RPM!!

I really want to catch the Snow Patrol show tonight but I don’t think I can justify it right now. Damn it.

I’ve said a few times before that to be successful, new download sites would have to stop stocking the same old titles at the same price and find ways to differentiate their offerings, or risk becoming mere commodity retailers. This appears to be the approach that War Child Music is taking, and how.

The newly opened, fully functional store charges more than other download services (99p a track, which is roughly $1.75 in US currency today), and their offerings are extremely limited (starting with 25 tracks, they’ll only add five or six new tracks a month) but their stuff is exclusive, there are extensive liner notes online, and for £3.50 a month (about $6.21 today) you get buffet-style downloads. And the best part is all the proceeds go to charities to help children who have been affected by war.

Now that’s differentiation and positioning.

The music’s pretty good too—an exclusive Radiohead live remix, a Tom Waits track from his new album, Keane covering “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore,” the 1995 Help relief album, and some other goodies. Plus they offer the tracks in both Windows Media and AAC, proving that you can please both the Microsoft camp and the iPod users.

Criticisms? Site navigation is poor, with new windows opening at random and little cross linking. Plus the tags seem to be missing from the AAC files—which is where you’re grateful for those extensive online liner notes. But I expect these wrinkles will be worked out in time.

I highly recommend Salon’s Wednesday Morning Download column, which is essentially an MP3 blog in weekly column form. This week Thomas Bartlett is pointing to new songs from John Cale, Mono, Rilo Kiley, Sainte Chapelle, the Mendoza Line, and Sam Amidon.

Last week’s column, a roundup of freely downloadable protest songs, was kind of a gimme by comparison, especially since I seem to recall Salon offering a collection of protest song downloads as a premium benefit a year ago. Occasionally Bartlett slips, as when talking about Sonic Youth’s freely downloadable “Youth Against Fascism” as a protest song aimed at W (the song, from the group’s Dirty album, was really aiming against Bush I and maybe even Reagan), but the column is still worth reading.

London News Review: Should I rip this? A mostly well thought out flowchart indicating the legal and moral questions that go through most consumers’ minds when contemplating getting music by means other than purchasing it. When it says “Should I rip this,” I assume the unspoken corollary is “from a CD other than one I own,” and that “should I download this from a peer-to-peer service” could really be answered with the same flowchart. (Via BoingBoing.)

As I believe I was saying… take a look at the Register’s article on the newest entrant into the music downloads space: Woolworth’s. Yep, department stores are now getting into the music downloads business. And needless to say, with a Windows-only offering that has not been integrated with their other download service, they’re doing a typically mediocre job with it.

Ah well. With commodity service offerings, someone has to be the low end player, I suppose.

EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation): This Song Belongs to You and Me. Follow the dots as we watch a case lesson in how not to profit from copyright:

1. Website JibJab releases immensely popular Flash animation parody of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” starring Kerry and Dubya.
2. Ludlow Music threatens to sue JibJab, claiming it owns the copyright to Guthrie’s song.
3. JibJab engages EFF and files suit against Ludlow, claiming fair use rights.
4. EFF investigates and finds that Ludlow filed copyright in 1956, eleven years after Guthrie first sold sheet music with the song and sixteen years after he wrote it. In 1940, the copyright term was 28 years, renewable once. Ludlow failed to renew the copyright in 1973, so the song effectively fell into the public domain—Ludlow’s late renewal in 1984 notwithstanding.
5. Ludlow backs down.

Cool. Good work, EFF. (Via BoingBoing.)

I found a lost gem in my aggregator last night: in the iTunes Just Added feeds was a listing for Chris Bell’s I Am The Cosmos. Without thinking, even though I had only heard one song from the album, I clicked and bought it.

And am I glad I did. As many of the Amazon reviewers commented, there are echoes here of John Lennon’s 1970s work (in particular, “Better Save Yourself” sounds like it would be at home on Shaved Fish), and the whole album admirably showcases why Chris should be remembered as Alex Chilton’s equal partner in making the first Big Star record the incredible musical moment it was.

Bruce Springsteen
Nebraska
Columbia, 1982

Well, I had the carburetor, baby, cleaned and checked
with her line blown out she’s hummin’ like a turbojet
Propped her up in the backyard on concrete blocks
for a new clutch plate and a new set of shocks
Took her down to the carwash, check the plugs and points
Well, I’m goin’ out tonight. I’m gonna rock that joint

Early north Jersey industrial skyline
I’m a all-set cobra jet creepin’ through the nighttime
Gotta find a gas station, gotta find a payphone
this turnpike sure is spooky at night when you’re all alone
Gotta hit the gas, baby. I’m running late,
this New Jersey in the mornin’ like a lunar landscape

Now, the boss don’t dig me, so he put me on the nightshift
It’s an all night run to get back to where my baby lives
In the wee wee hours your mind gets hazy
radio relay towers, won’t you lead me to my baby?
Underneath the overpass, trooper hits his party light switch
Goodnight good luck one two power shift

I met Wanda when she was employed
behind the counter at route 60 Bob’s Big Boy
Fried Chicken on the front seat, she’s sittin’ in my lap
We’re wipin’ our fingers on a Texaco roadmap
I remember Wanda up on scrap metal hill
with them big brown eyes that make your heart stand still

Well, at five a.m., oil pressure’s sinkin’ fast
I make a pit stop, wipe the windshield, check the gas
Gotta call my baby on the telephone
Let her know that her daddy’s comin’ on home
Sit tight, little mama, I’m comin’ ’round
I got three more hours, but I’m coverin’ ground

Your eyes get itchy in the wee wee hours
sun’s just a red ball risin’ over them refinery towers
Radio’s jammed up with gospel stations
lost souls callin’ long distance salvation
Hey, mister deejay, woncha hear my last prayer
hey, ho, rock’n’roll, deliver me from nowhere

A while ago I wrote about arbitraging the iTunes Music Store against Amazon, with a Miles Davis live album that could be bought for about 12% the cost of the Amazon version just because it only had two tracks. With the release of the European iTMSes, there’s another market inequity that becomes visible, but unfortunately it’s not as consumer friendly.

Case in point #1: PJ Harvey. The UK site has an exclusive EP for “You Come Through,” with two songs unavailable on the US store (“Stone” and “Who the F**k (4 Track Version)”).

Case #2: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Three US albums of which one is partial, vs. 9 UK albums (plus two that are remastered versions).

Other examples: the Cure (15 US, 25 UK); Genesis (14 US, 21 UK); even U2 (21 US, 41 UK — including some Achtung Baby era singles whose b-sides aren’t available anywhere else and which I’ve been trying to find for years). (It also cuts both ways; there are no Peter Gabriel solo albums currently available in the UK store.)

So what’s the problem? Credit cards work across national boundaries, don’t they? I mean, I can order from Amazon.co.uk, so I should be able to order from the UK iTMS, right?

Wrong. For some inexplicable reason, my account will only work in the US store; attempting to purchase a song in the UK store redirects me to the US store, where I get told the track isn’t available. I suspect it has to do with billing address on the credit card.

Why should this be? There are no physical inventory issues—I’m sure that the files all live in the same set of servers at Akamai or wherever. So I suspect it’s the music industry’s fault. Can anyone explain the precise legal and economic issues to me? Better, can someone suggest a legal billing-address or other workaround—i.e. how does one get a credit card with a UK billing address???